Times have been busy since returning from the Grand Canyon trip in late summer. Shortly after returning home, I traveled to the 88 Ranch in Wyoming with my brother and a couple of friends from the North Georgia mountains to go on a antelope hunt. We had a super time in Casper and a very successful hunt on top of that.
After Casper, Mary and I left for a Yellowstone “Dew Crew” Reunion at Belknap Hot Springs on the McKenzie River in Oregon. What a fun time we had visiting with our old friends from Yellowstone National Park. Some of these friendships go back as far as 1979. Oregon is a definitely a beautiful state to visit. We hiked, rafted and played hard. I even got a chance to re-visit the PCT at McKenzie Pass. What a great “Dew Crew” reunion it was!
Since about 2012, I’ve been doing a backpacking trip somewhere between Christmas and New Years. This year Douglas Tew “Chainsaw” and I did a 36 mile section of the Benton MacKaye Trail between Cherry Log, Georgia and the Ocoee River in Tennessee. It was a great hike with approximately 8,500 feet of uphill and 8,500 feet of downhill elevation change. Man, I sure missed my trail legs, but look forward to this April, as I plan to head out to thru hike the CDT and hopefully complete my Triple Crown.
I was also fortunate enough to get several days of kayaking in over on the Tellico River with some good local friends.
This past summer I was invited to join a group going back to Ecuador for some winter whitewater kayaking and of course I couldn’t turn that down. This year the trip was with Endless River Adventures which turned out to be another awesome and exciting trip on the equator! I would like to thank Juliet and her team at ERA for making this journey a very special adventure. Juliet is credited for many of the photos below as well. Thank you!
Our group all turned out to be super fun and a talented group of paddlers! It was truly a blessing and a honor to paddle with such a fine group of boaters! However, I’m not sure I can include Netflix Kevin there. 🙂
The rivers we paddled included the Rio Quijos, Cosanga, Jondachi, Misahualli and Jatunyacu Rivers.
A great week of paddling in Ecuador!
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Whitewater's Long Distance Trail Journeys 
Love looking at your pictures. Glad that you are still enjoying the great outdoors.
I must have missed your thru-hike of the PCT. Did you YouTube it or was it on Appalachian Trail Jaurnal?
Looking forward to seeing and following your CDT hike. Hopefully, You’ll be able to YouTube it.
I hope to finish my AT hike this year. I came off back in 2018 because I didn’t listen to my own advice. HYOH. I wasn’t able to get back on last year because my wife and I demoed half of our house to the studs and rebuilt it. We were done by Christmas.
Anyhow, Enjoy your time with your family and friends.
God bless, Will Barton RC Slowpoke
On Sun, Feb 9, 2020, 1:44 PM Whitewater’s Long Distance Trail Journeys wrote:
> dnlangford posted: “Times have been busy since returning from the Grand > Canyon trip in late summer. Shortly after returning home, I traveled to the > 88 Ranch in Wyoming with my brother and a couple of friends from the North > Georgia mountains to go on a antelope hunt. We had a” >